


jump in the water

by theriveroflight



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Anti-Faunus Racism (RWBY), F/F, Femslash, Queerplatonic Renora, Valkos Week 2021 (RWBY), queerplatonic war of the roses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:35:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29380044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriveroflight/pseuds/theriveroflight
Summary: Pyrrha knows singing by the docks will bring her nothing but strife. It'll just attract the attention of the sirens that live in the ocean near Vale, and that does no one any good.But she stays, and when one of them responds to her, she keeps going.
Relationships: Jaune Arc & Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc & Ruby Rose & Weiss Schnee, Lie Ren & Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos & Weiss Schnee, Pyrrha Nikos/Nora Valkyrie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	jump in the water

**Author's Note:**

> Valkos Week day 3: mermaid AU
> 
> There's some unrequited arkos + renora at the start. Warnings for mentions of hunting and eating humans.
> 
> While this was not written on my phone I am posting it from there and it keeps correcting Jaune's name. It seems to like Maine and Jaime the best.

Pyrrha thought she would never know loneliness again when she ran away to Vale. She left the combat circles, she left the tournament circuits, she left everything she had known before,

Two of her parents disagreed with her decision to fight, but one of her mothers wanted her to, and Pyrrha, young and starry-eyed, had wanted to learn too.

She wanted to be a teacher first and foremost, and the tournaments were just…practice. She took to it like a fish to water and then she met Weiss.

Weiss was a martial artist, too — a little bratty, a little smaller, not as experienced and a little scrappy, but Pyrrha felt a sort of kinship with her. Martial arts as a form of rebellion.

So they met at a tournament, and formed a pact to go to Beacon Academy when they would be both old enough.

Beacon Academy is different from the past fighting spaces she’s been in. It’s more serious, more dedicated to tradition, a little different from the martial arts she’s done before.

She meets Jaune Arc in the process. And Pyrrha Nikos falls in love over extra study sessions and partner sparring and Jaune learning to defend himself from Cardin and faked papers.

And then Jaune lets her down in favor of pursuing Weiss, and Pyrrha runs.

She knows, deep down, she’ll still have Jaune as a friend. But that isn’t all she wants.

She hears a few notes in the wind.

Sirens. Evolved from aquatic Faunus — they were more common in Mistral, but she should have known they would be around the ocean here as well.

Pyrrha doesn’t know why she responds with a short tune of her own.

A little longer of a song, and Pyrrha responds with something just running through her head. She’s still on the dock, not in the water yet, still safe. She’s from Argus, she knows what sirens are like, she knows how to resist them.

She doesn’t want to.

A redheaded girl emerges from the water.

“Hello,” she sings.

“Hello there,” Pyrrha answers, smiling.

“I could see you. You looked lonely.”

“The boy I like rejected me,” Pyrrha says. “For a girl that  _ definitely  _ doesn’t like him back.”

“Human love is strange,” the siren comments. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on eating you. I just want to talk.”

“I would fight you if you tried to eat me,” Pyrrha answers.

“I don’t think you would win,” she responds.

“What can I call you?”

“My name is Nora,” the siren responds, and though it’s a smile the sharp teeth make her look  _ dangerous.  _

“Pyrrha. I’m a student at Beacon, if you know what that means.”

“I do,” Nora answers. “I almost considered it, but a tail makes some of the movements impossible.”

Pyrrha throws her head back with laughter.

“Is that…good?” Nora asks. “I’ve only ever spoken with one other being around my age.”

Nora looks around Pyrrha’s age, so she assumes that Nora must be much older, because sirens age more slowly. “Yes. You’re funny.”

Nora frowns. “Nobody ever appreciates my humor. The elders all call me a fool for being fond of humanity. And Ren is…different.”

Pyrrha recognizes the shift in tone when Nora speaks of Ren (it’s the same way Jaune speaks of Weiss) and some strange form of jealousy rises within her.

“How is he different?”

“He’s…the only other mer around my age.”

“Mer?”

“It’s what we call ourselves. Siren was imposed on us by your kind and the Faunus we were once a part of.”

Pyrrha nods with understanding. “And what’s Ren like?”

“He’s…the elders like him better. And we love each other, but in different ways.”

She perhaps understands a little bit. Ruby doesn’t love anyone romantically and is open about that, but she and Weiss have a partnership that isn’t quite platonic or romantic in nature.

“I see. It’s okay to still be getting over it.”

“I’ve had years to think about it.”

This time, she can make out words, but they’re not in a language she understands, except she hears  _ Nora  _ in there.

“That’s me,” Nora says, warbling back a response before she dives underneath the waves and goes off, presumably back to her home.

* * *

Students arrive as exchanges for the Vytal Tournament, the ultimate test. Pyrrha knows she’ll be a favorite, but there are so many other students who are capable of taking it from her.

Jaune hangs out with Ruby and Weiss more, and eventually informs Pyrrha that he’s joined their partnership. She hopes that he’ll be happy in that kind of relationship, and can find it fulfilling in the same way that Weiss does despite not being like Ruby. 

She goes back to the water a few times, with the same lonely tune from before.

Eventually, she sings a different song, one that’s happier, a  _ celebration  _ of sorts instead of mourning. It’s a new release from Weiss, under her pseudonym, and she honestly doesn’t know where Weiss finds the time to record music between the training at Beacon and practice for the tournament. Pyrrha takes off her shoes, even, so she can let her feet hang in the water.

Nora surfaces, and responds to her. “What’s that song? I know it, because I am born with innate musical knowledge, but…”

“It’s a dance song,” Pyrrha answers. “Romantic.”

“What are the lyrics?”

“Singing to you would feel weird,” Pyrrha answers, half-jest half-real. Because mers are supposed to be better singers, aren’t they? She doesn’t have much of a talent for it. She knows that Weiss could probably match Nora in talent, but she also knows that if she is lucky none of her friends from Beacon will ever meet Nora.

“Do it anyways,” Nora responds, with a smile that looks less threatening, now, that she’s seen it before.

“Baby, it’s time to make up your mind…” Pyrrha begins, stumbling over some of the lyrics at times, Nora harmonizing where she chooses to.

“You sing well,” Nora comments.

“Not as well as my friend Weiss,” Pyrrha answers. “She’s like, an actual opera singer or something. I would introduce you, but I don’t…”

“I’m a secret to them?” Nora seems hurt. “I…”

“I’m used to keeping secrets.” The water on her feet runs colder than it had before, and she looks over to the setting sun. “I’ve carried a lot with me. And while my friends would all likely be okay with me befriending a mer, I’m not certain that all of them can keep a secret. One of them is a Faunus, though she prefers to hide that, and there have been a few times where it almost got out.”

“I know you have to prioritize your safety,” Nora says, and she’s being  _ careful _ with her words, Pyrrha can tell because there’s a slight stagger between each of them. “But I want to trust you. Trust humanity.”

“I’m not sure that you should,” Pyrrha answers. “I don’t think you should trust me. I don’t trust myself, most of the time.” And that is dangerous for a warrior, she knows, but there is a difference between battle instincts and navigating conversation.

“But I want to,” Nora says, “so prove to me that you are.”

“I will bring my oldest friend to meet you,” Pyrrha says.

“Call, and I will come,” Nora responds.

* * *

“I want you to come with me,” Pyrrha asks.

“What?” Weiss asks. “Why?”

“There’s…someone I want you to meet.” Pyrrha can feel her cheeks warming. Hm. “She wants to meet you, too. You’re my oldest friend, Weiss.”

“Though not your  _ best, _ ” Weiss answers. “So why me?”

“Because you’re my first friend.”

Weiss is no longer looking at Pyrrha like she was before. “I…you are the same to me.”

“I’m glad. Now, come with me.”

Bringing Weiss might be a mistake. She knows that it took Weiss a long time to shake off her racism against the Faunus, but the mers face more discrimination than the Faunus did. But it is a show of trust to bring her oldest friend, and Weiss acts with kindness to Blake. (Though perhaps that kindness is influenced by a different kind of feeling.)

“Where are we going?” Weiss demands.

“The docks,” Pyrrha answers.

“Who could we possibly meet at the  _ docks?  _ I thought all the exchange students were here already.” 

They arrive at the docks, and Pyrrha lets out a call, more akin to the first tune she sung.

Weiss hums in harmony (probably not on purpose) and then looks at Pyrrha. “What are you doing? I didn’t know you could sing.”

“I don’t do it very often,” Pyrrha answers.

“Pyrrha?” Nora emerges from the water, and Weiss backs away in shock.

“A  _ siren?!” _

“They call themselves mers,” Pyrrha responds.

“I don’t eat people.”

“So what, you’re…vegetarian?”

“Brothers, Weiss, you can’t just  _ say  _ that.” Pyrrha crosses her arms.

“It’s a valid question from a more ignorant human,” Nora says, “but we fish. Sustainably, not like humans do. I was born with the ability to use electricity, so I shock them out of the water.”

“Do all…mers…possess this ability?” Weiss seems skeptical, but is at the very least playing along, and that is enough for Pyrrha, for now.

“No. Each of us has our own ability, our own way of helping.” Nora shrugs. “It’s always been my duty to be strong.”

Pyrrha connects with that, in her own way.

“Well,” Weiss says, “it was good to meet you. W-I have to go. Ruby, Blake, Yang and I are going to be competing as a team and we need to train.”

Right. The tournament. But Pyrrha just kneels to take her shoes and socks off, dangling her feet in the water again. The water is cold, but it won’t be long before she acclimatizes. 

“Competing?”

“The Vytal Tournament is coming soon. You might have noticed a lot more boats coming in the last week — it boosts tourism by a long shot, and everything.”

“Oh. How are you competing?”

“Weiss and I are competing as a duo — we’ve been a tournament pair for a little while now. And I’m competing by myself. Since Weiss is going with the others, I don’t have anyone to team up with besides Jaune, who isn’t confident in his abilities enough to compete. I don’t want to make him do anything he doesn’t want to.”

“Weiss is…the one I just met. And Jaune is…I presume the boy who rejected you.”

“Yes to the first, and the second doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Do you have your eye on someone new?” Nora asks.

“I could ask the same of you,” Pyrrha responds.

“Ren and I…well, the way I love him changed. It’s not romantic anymore, it’s closer to the way that he loves me.”

“I’d like to meet Ren sometime. Maybe I’ll bring one of my other friends, I think she and Ren would get along well.”

“You know, you always dip your feet in. Have you ever been completely submerged?”

“Ah, I grew up in Argus. The ocean was colder there, and it’s still too cold here. I don’t think I would attempt now. I do know how to swim, though.” 

“Well,” Nora says, “no better time for the present.” She hooks Pyrrha’s feet, and she knows what’s going to happen in an instant. Pyrrha falls into the water with a shout, sinking before instinct takes over and she comes to the top, treading water.

“Nora!” she yells, but she doesn’t really mean to scold. “I didn’t mean to do it, I don’t want to fall sick now.”

“You aren’t going to get sick. It’s okay,” Nora says.

And the way that Nora looks at her, she can believe that it  _ will  _ be okay.

“Is it crazy?”

“What?”

“If the reason I’ve moved forwards is because of  _ you,”  _ Pyrrha confesses.

“It’s not,” Nora responds, “because I did too.” 

“May I kiss you?” Pyrrha moves a little closer to Nora, as close as she can without hitting Nora as she treads water.

Nora responds by pulling Pyrrha in, and their lips meet. Pyrrha kicks a little bit out of panic, trying to keep herself afloat when she no longer can use her arms. The kiss is nice, though. Nora tastes like salt and ocean and Pyrrha vaguely knows the danger of Nora’s teeth but she doesn’t care, she presses into the kiss. Nora holds Pyrrha tight against her, and she flushes when she realizes that Nora is stronger than she seems, and can probably lift more than Pyrrha weighs.

Pyrrha drifts back a little, clinging to the dock. She’ll pull herself up in a bit, but for now the water is probably warmer than the land.

“You’ll be back?” Nora asks.

“I promise I will,” Pyrrha answers. She pulls herself up onto the dock. “But for now, I have a little more time to just sit up here and wait for my feet to dry off enough to put my shoes back on and head back.”

“Okay,” Nora says.

There’s still more to talk about, more to settle, more to work on. All relationships possess these things, though, and Pyrrha’s willing to put in that work.

**Author's Note:**

> then Pyrrha meets Ren and RBY + J meet Nora and they do their best to live happily


End file.
